Conventional inkjet printing requires cyclical deposition of swaths between substrate moves. The area of the interface of each swath, called a swath boundary, may contain defects due to many different error sources and process variables. Examples of swath boundary error sources are: substrate motion error, print head motion error, print head alignment, ink droplet formation variation, ink dry-time, ink colorant order, just to name a few.
One method commonly used to reduce sensitivity to substrate motion error is swath edge tapering. This refers to reducing the density of the swath some number of nozzles away from the end, then adjusting the move sizes so that the complimentary density can be deposited by the opposite end of the print head after the appropriate substrate motion. A common side effect of utilizing swath edge tapering is that it can introduce new defects due to ink colorant order, ink dry-time, etc.